CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS says that John Kerry got it wrong about firehouses. “Solidarity and internationalism, indeed, used to be the cement of the democratic Left. So, do we understand the nominee correctly? Is he telling us that Iraqi firefighters are parasites sucking on the American tit, and that they don’t deserve the supportive brotherhood that used to be the proudest signature of the labor movement?”

GROVER NORQUIST is looking bad.

THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL has published an article, which I somehow missed, on “Michael Moore’s Truth Problem.”

And there you have the essential Moore — a worldview of America as a failed project and an abiding danger to the planet. No wonder they so love Moore abroad: His is a 1960s vision, hardened in the pre-NAFTA plant closings of the 1980s, of a nation hijacked by the suits, the very guys who for decades gave Moore’s father a good job at General Motors. It’s from this posture that all the Moorean invective flows.

Full of hateful fiction, Michael Moore’s work is the Turner Diaries of the left, and it’s likely to have a similar consequence. (Via ChicagoBoyz).

UPDATE: Read this, too. Maybe he’s more like a domestic Lord Haw-Haw?

ANOTHER UPDATE: With maybe a touch of Jayson Blair:

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph newspaper in central Illinois has sent a letter to Moore and his production company, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., asking Moore to apologize for using what the newspaper says was a doctored front page in the film, the paper reported Friday.

Michael Moore — lying? Imagine that. Heck, even Der Spiegel is down on him for dishonesty, and says his words are “like bombs.” Indeed. Funny how the people who were denouncing “hate speech” in the 1990s aren’t after Moore’s 21st Century diatribes against the Zionist Occupation Government.

STILL MORE: A reader writes: “From reading you I thought you were a Constitutional law professor who would understand that people like Moore can criticize the USA without being labeled as one who hates it.”

Actually, the First Amendment provides no protection against being “labeled” as anything. Characterizing Moore’s speech as anti-American is free speech, too. And it’s accurate free speech, I think.

It’s funny that a lot of people seem to feel that the First Amendment embodies a substantive preference in favor of anti-American speech. But it doesn’t.

RICH GET POORER, MIDDLE CLASS GETS RICHER? Those are the Bush economic results, according to EconoPundit Steven Antler and data from the IRS.

Of course, that’s not quite how the New York Times reports it.

YES-NO-MAYBE: Donald Sensing tries to untangle Kerry’s views on preemption.

LAWRENCE KAPLAN ON KERRY, at TNR — I agree with Tom Maguire that his analysis is “brutal.”

Maguire’s own analysis seems kinder only by comparison.

UPDATE: Tom Oliphant didn’t like it, either. “Kerry stepped on his best thoughts and lines and blurred important proposals and distinctions, committing the sin of interfering with his own ability to communicate with an electorate eager to learn much more about President Bush’s opponent.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan: “The truth is: Biden and Lieberman and Edwards and even Obama were more ressuring on the war than Kerry was. Given how important it is for Kerry to burnish his war credentials and how deeply resistant he was to embrace the war in his acceptance speech, I think the candidate has told us roughly where he stands.”

And I neglected to mention Virginia Postrel’s take:

Well, that speech certainly reminded me why I’m not voting for John Kerry. Contrary to much of the rest of the convention, it was a red-meat speech, complete with “Bush lied” rhetoric, pharmaceutical-company bashing, xenophobic talk about outsourcing, and a promise to make health care “a right.” Aside from the much-remarked-upon flag-waving-veteran talk, the speech was mostly made up of (in Kerry’s anti-GOP words) “narrow appeals masquerading as values.” Better a tongue-tied president than a demagogue.

Kerry’s lucky that she wasn’t on TV last night.

Greg Djerejian observes:

Still, would the Dems (most of whom voted for the war, including Kerry) have done it better? . . .

Oh, and let’s be clear. That extra 40,000 troops? Not a single one, emphasis added above and, indeed, in the speech, are heading Baghdad way. Just in case anyone got some crazy idea…But what, heaven forbid, if they were needed there? Non-starter, it would seem. Another indication that faux-realism in Iraq is code for let’s get out sooner rather than later.

Indeed. Why is “realism” never a synonym for “doing the job right?”

STILL MORE: Ouch: “It may well be true that, as a number of pundits have claimed, Kerry gave the best goddamned speech of his career last night. But that’s a little like saying Yoko Ono’s latest CD is her best-ever.”

ZEYAD IS BACK, after a lengthy blog hiatus, and posts links to lots of new Iraqi blogs.

AL JAZEERA is reporting that Zarqawi has been captured. We’ve heard that quite a few times before, so I think I’ll wait for some more substantial confirmation. If true, it was certainly considerate of the Bush Administration to wait until after Kerry had a chance to deliver his speech, and I hope he’ll thank them for their generosity in terms of the timing. . . .

UPDATE: A reader suggests that — given the quality of Kerry’s speech — an arrest of Zarqawi that didn’t distract people from its delivery is proof of Bush Administration conniving. Hmm. Not entirely implausible. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Michele Catalano, who knows all, emails that AlJazeera.com is not connected with the Al Jazeera TV network, and that it’s quite unreliable. Given that we haven’t heard more about this, I’m pretty sure it’s bogus.

WE HAVE A WINNER, in the Bush Twins Photo Caption Contest over at my evil twin’s site.

MICHAEL TOTTEN is back from Africa, and blogging away.

DAVID APPELL says that the convention bloggers mostly failed. I guess the question is, “compared to what?”

MORE PHOTO FUN: And without photoshop!

THAT WHICH MUST NOT BE NAMED: Geitner Simmons notes that the Democratic Leadership Council is tiptoeing around protectionist talk from Kerry and Edwards.

GEORGE MILLER IS RATHER CRITICAL of Kerry:

The sum total of what Kerry knows about “what we have to do in Iraq” amounts to no more than this: Kerry would be nicer to “allies” who try to thwart the democratisation of the Arab world and he would cut costs and get the troops home as soon as possible. Kerry might have more foreign policy ideas up his sleeve, but these were the only words he had to say on Iraq in his entire speech last night.

Kerry was unable to actually articulate what the “job” in Iraq is. He wants to talk about strategy while leaving the objectives nice and fuzzy.

Indeed. Quite a few people seem to have noticed that.

UPDATE: Gerard Van der Leun emails:

He can’t articulate it because the “job” to be done in Iraq is what is now actually being done in Iraq.

You know this I know, but I’m just saying.

Well, yeah.

BUSH’S SPEECH IN SPRINGFIELD TODAY addresses the war issue:

The world changed on a terrible September morning. And since that day, we’ve changed the world.

Before September the 11th, Afghanistan served as the home base for Al Qaida, which trained and deployed thousands of killers to set up terror cells in dozens of countries, including our own. Today, Afghanistan is a rising democracy, an ally in the war on terror, a place where many young girls go to school for the first time. And as a result of our actions, America and the world are safer.

Before September the 11th, Pakistan was a safe transit point for terrorists. Today, Pakistani forces are aggressively helping to round up the terrorists and America and the world are safer.

Before September the 11th, in Saudi Arabia, terrorists were raising money and recruiting and operating with little opposition. Today, the Saudi government has taken the fight to Al Qaida and America and the world are safer.

Before September the 11th, Libya was spending millions to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Today, because America and our allies have sent a strong and clear message, the leader of Libya has abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and America and the world are safer.

Before September the 11th, the ruler of Iraq was a sworn enemy of America.

BUSH: He was defying the world. He was firing weapons at American pilots and forcing the world’s sanctions. He had pursued and used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had harbored terrorists. He invaded his neighbors. He subsidized the families of suicide bombers. He had murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens. He was a source of great instability in the world’s most vulnerable region.

I took those threats seriously. After September the 11th, we had to look at the threats in a new light. One of the lessons of September the 11th is we must deal with threats before they fully materialize.

The September the 11th commission concluded that our institutions of government had failed to imagine the horror of that day. After September the 11th, we cannot fail to imagine that a brutal tyrant, who hated America, who had ties to terror, had weapons of mass destruction and might use those weapons or share his deadly capability with terrorists was not a threat.

We looked at the intelligence. We saw a threat. Members of the United States Congress from both political parties, including my opponent, looked at the intelligence and they saw a threat.

Read the whole thing. (Via Blogged and Dangerous).

PARANOIA strikes deep.

MY MISERABLE FAILURE in not linking to the Carnival of the Vanities yesterday has now been remedied. Lots of cool posts from many different bloggers.

HERE’S A REPORT that Sandy Berger has been cleared of all wrongdoing. But here’s another report saying that the first report is wrong. Which is true? Beats me. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Baer emails:

If the first report was correct, what are we to make of Berger’s previous statement that several documents that had inadvertently been removed by him had subsequently been inadvertently discarded? Was he lying about taking them, returning them or discarding them? Also, there is nothing in here about his breach of the rules in sneaking out his handwritten notes or about making prohibited cel phone calls from a secure room.

Beats me, but I’m sure it will all be made clear eventually.

TACITUS expresses further skepticism regarding the effect of Kerry’s speech: “It is when we turn to the NYT lead editorial on the same topic that we start to see that WaPo’s piece is not an outlier, but indicative of a broader problem with Kerry’s remarks, the Democratic National Convention, and the campaign itself.”

“FRANCE A PROBLEM FOR EUROPE:”

Monti’s inflexibility in applying EU rules has inspired fear. Nicknamed “Super Mario” for bending US giants Microsoft and General Electric to his will, he also drew the ire of French and German political and business leaders for making them hand back state aid, deemed illegal under EU competition rules. . . .

He is particularly scathing of France, which he scores for favouring the short-term interests of some big national companies to the detriment of EU economic development in general.

“France has become a problem for itself and for Europe. It cannot handle its successes, and often it doesn’t see them, and attributes its setbacks, which are often imaginary, to Europe.” . . .

And Monti believes the Berlusconi government has been too compliant in its dealings with France and Germany. “There’s no point in doing favours which will not be returned, to win the sympathy of the powerful.”

Somebody arrange a meeting with John Kerry.

WEIRD: Earlier I linked to an ABC story about suggested mob connections regarding Hollywood moneyman Stephen Bing. Now when you follow the link you get a “content not available” page — though the link and synopsis for the story still shows up when you search “Stephen Bing” on the ABC site.

This either means that the story has been pulled because it contains errors, or because somebody persuaded ABC to pull it for other reasons. Since ABC doesn’t say, we can only speculate.

UPDATE: Here’s more on Bing from The Independent:

One of the Democrats’ biggest contributors is Hollywood producer Steve Bing, the ungentlemanly cad who impregnated poor English rose Liz Hurley and didn’t do the decent thing . Bing has been more than generous to the Democrats however, contributing $16m. But law enforcement officials have told ABC News that Bing is a friend and business partner of Dominic Montemarano, a New York Mafia figure currently in prison on racketeering charges. Montemarano is better known by his street name Donnie Shacks. No word yet from Bing.

And no word, anymore, from ABC. Perhaps there’s nothing to this story, though you have to worry. And surely any normal man with would want to take credit for impregnating Liz Hurley, regardless of the truth. . . .

MORE: Here’s another report on Bing’s alleged mob connections from the Post.

JOSHUA CLAYBOURN: “My question is rather simple: From here on out, what would Kerry do differently in Iraq?”

I was hoping to hear that question answered last night. But as the Washington Post observes:

Mr. Kerry therefore sought above all to make the case that he could be trusted to lead a nation at war, and rightly so; he and Mr. Bush must be judged first and foremost on those grounds. But on that basis, though Mr. Kerry spoke confidently and eloquently, his speech was in many respects a disappointment.

The responsibility of sending troops into danger should weigh on a commander in chief. But so must the responsibility of protecting the nation against a shadowy foe not easily deterred by traditional means. Mr. Kerry last night elided the charged question of whether, as president, he would have gone to war in Iraq. He offered not a word to celebrate the freeing of Afghans from the Taliban, or Iraqis from Saddam Hussein, and not a word about helping either nation toward democracy. . . .

Nor did Mr. Kerry’s statements about future threats do justice to the complexity of today’s challenge. . . . Mr. Kerry missed an opportunity for straight talk.

I agree. Meanwhile, Holman Jenkins observes: “It’s no secret a great many Democrats are skeptical of Mr. Kerry. These are exactly the Democrats now arguing that he can win by signaling to voters an end to America’s exertions, an end to drama, a time of rest. That’s the real message of Mr. Kerry’s constant invoking of Vietnam. That’s the real strength of his campaign: I was daring and adventurous then, and had my fill.”

IS RUSSIA THE NEXT ZIMBABWE?

But the destruction of Yukos is about more than a rich, arrogant jerk getting his deserts and investors in one of the world’s riskiest stock markets getting burned. At stake is the direction of Russia’s ongoing experiment with its unique brand of post-Soviet capitalism and whether the privatization process that forms the foundation of Russia’s economy will be subjected to additional modification. Arguably, this could lay the groundwork for “more competition in the workplace and greater social equality,” says Lavelle.

But once the renationalization genie is out of its bottle, stuffing it back in will be difficult. And competing for the title of the northern hemisphere’s version of Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe committed macroeconomic suicide by seizing farms from white landowners, is probably not the way the newest member of the G8 club of supposedly developed nations wants to make its mark. Foreign investment, the lifeblood of the economic growth before which Putin piously pretends to genuflect, will take a holiday far away. Meanwhile, fears that Yukos will stop pumping oil are pushing global oil prices to fresh highs.

That would indeed be suicidally stupid for Putin — but such behavior is not unthinkable. And this explains how hard it is to turn a former dictatorship into a free-market democracy. The Cold War ended over a decade ago, and Russia is still in an uncertain state. This should put Iraq’s transition in perspective.

THANKS, ANDREW: I didn’t think you really meant that. Very handsomely done.

WINDS OF DISCOVERY has a roundup of all sorts of interesting scientific and technical news. Don’t miss it.